Second day. Performance of the comedy and ballet of the Princesse d'Elide on a theatre in the same alleyway.
The Ultimes are prints made from the original etching plates in the Chalcographie collection at the Musée du Louvre before they were put into storage for preservation reasons.
For reasons of preservation, it was decided to stop printing plates engraved before 1848. Before they left the Ateliers to go into the Louvre's reserves, some were printed one last time. These are the last ones. Each print is dated, numbered and stamped, and is sold with a certificate of authenticity, in a limited edition of 10.
Part of the series of Plaisirs de l'Isle enchantée, also known as the Fêtes et Divertissements du Roi à Versailles, the print, along with eight others, depicts all the arts for which the king developed a particular affinity. This series illustrates the royal entertainment given at Versailles in 1664. The Fêtes des Plaisirs de l'île enchantée, spread over seven days, were organised in honour of Louis XIV's mother and wife - and, unofficially, his mistress Mlle de La Vallière. The theme was romantic chivalry, with a mixture of magicians, knights and love. All the arts were brought together to create a grandiose celebration, a sign of the king's power. The Plaisirs de l'Isle enchantée thus brought together all the arts for which the king had developed a particular liking.
In this print, Israël Silvestre (1621-1691) depicts the second day of festivities, which began on the seventh day of May. It depicts the performance of the comedy and ballet of the Princesse d'Elide on a theatre in the Allée Royale.
Engravings, which had become a means of distribution that reached a very wide audience in France and Europe, thus showed the grandeur of royal entertainment as an accompaniment to official relations, and thus testified to the king's greatness for the purposes of royal propaganda.
Dimensions of the sheet (cm): H. 33 × W. 50
Dimensions of the plate (cm): H. 28.6 × W. 43.5
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